author
Xixing Lu
1520–1606
A Ming-era Daoist writer and thinker, he is remembered for shaping the Eastern school of internal alchemy and for his lasting connection to the classic novel Investiture of the Gods. His life sits at the crossroads of religion, literature, and self-cultivation.
1 Audiobook
封神演義
by Xixing Lu
About the author
Born in Xinghua, Jiangsu, during the Ming dynasty, Lu Xixing was a Daoist writer and teacher traditionally dated to 1520–1606, though some sources give 1601 as his year of death. He was also known by the style name Changgeng and the Daoist name Qianxuzi.
He is best known as an important figure in Daoist internal alchemy and is often described as the founder of the Eastern school. Modern summaries of his life also note that he pursued self-cultivation in a literati setting rather than through formal ordination, and that he wrote extensively on alchemical practice as well as on Daoist and Buddhist texts.
Lu Xixing is also frequently linked with the authorship of Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen Yanyi), usually as a probable or attributed co-author alongside Xu Zhonglin. Even where that attribution remains uncertain, his reputation has endured because his work helped connect religious thought, commentary, and popular storytelling in late imperial China.